What I was getting at with the relative clause thing is whether I find placing the relative clauses before nouns in Japanese cumbersome simply because I'm an Indo-European speaker and therefore typically organize my own thoughts in an Indo-European manner or whether the Japanese (and Korean) way of structuring relative clauses (i.e., embedding them BEFORE the noun that they modify) is inherently cumbersome and therefore reduces the versatility of speech.Natural_Born_Cynic wrote: ↑July 10th, 2023, 7:22 amNope, very little difficulty at all. Because I speak, read, write Korean at home and speak both Korean and English at my workplace.
Takes very little effort to switch between both languages.
This is what I mean:
(Taken from: https://languagecanvas.com/free/kor1/ko ... lclaus.htm)Q: How are Korean relative clauses different?
A: Well, the first thing you need to know is that in Korean, the relative clause appears BEFORE the noun it modifies, not after. Consider Korean translations for sentences 1-3 above:
1. 수미가 읽는 책
"The book [that Sumi reads]"
2. 교실에 있는 학생
"The students [who are in the classroom]"
3. 박선생님이 일하시는 대학교
"The university [where Mr. Park works]"
This works exactly the same way in both Korean and Japanese. Obviously this kind of sentence structure which is inverted from the perspective of Indo-European languages can be learned by a foreign learner through clear instruction and practice (indeed, I myself mastered it quite quickly when I was learning Japanese), but at the same time I've for a while considered that the structure in question might be inherently less wieldy than the Indo-European way (i.e., with the relative clause placed AFTER the noun) since it prevents the speaker from introducing new information mid-sentence and on the fly. To me, it seems like a far more convoluted way of doing things and I always hated that part of Japanese.
I just wondered what your thoughts were on this particular feature since you grew up speaking both Korean and English.
I've been speaking Spanish since I was 17 and find it really easy to express myself in the language. My knowledge of grammar is almost perfect and I have good pronunciation (I don't speak like a typical gringo with that horrid Anglophone accent).Natural_Born_Cynic wrote: ↑July 10th, 2023, 7:22 amWhat about you? I know you prefer Spanish rather than English, but those Spaniards still consider you "Anglo" because of your UK nationality.
It is not apparent to Spaniards that I'm from an Anglo country at first glance. Since I don't have an Anglophone accent and instead speak Spanish with a marked Latin American pronunciation, I am usually taken for a non-Anglophone European foreigner (I've been asked whether I'm Bulgarian, Romanian, French, etc.) or sometimes even a light-skinned Latino. Lol!
Unlike most Americans and Brits, I'm actually good at languages!
I meant your thoughts on the Korean language as a Korean American misfit. I already knew that you hated most Korean people. Lol!Natural_Born_Cynic wrote: ↑July 10th, 2023, 7:22 amMy thoughts on Koreans as a Korean American misfit? The same as yours towards your own countrymen, my friend.
Neutral to bad. I never had any deep and lasting connection with Koreans because most of them are conformist, cold, soulless, conniving, backstabbing, selfish, narrow minded, rigid little c*nts. I never hang out with them as they can't be trusted. Just like you, I like Latinos more.
Do you like Korean? Do you think that it is a good language? Or do you dislike some aspects of it?
As you already know, I'm a native English speaker with a predilection for Spanish. I don't think that English is particularly illogical (it's quite easy to use in various ways); I simply think that it is ugly and also of inferior quality since it lacks many of the complexities of Spanish and other Romance languages which allow for greater precision and expressivity. For me, English is just a low-quality piece of junk which happens to be popular and useful and to which I am bound by accident of fate. However, whenever I speak Spanish with my Hispanic friends or am immersed in a Hispanophone environment, I always feel much happier and more at home.